That’s unfortunate, but if you arrive at the gate after the latest time on the BP, the airline can walk away, in a literal and metaphorical sense – Ryanair will walk away, as you found out, sadly.

I had a similar thing happen in ZRH, when I was in a 3rd party lounge that also hosted BA pax and the desk told me not to go to the gate until a certain time, as there was a delay.

This info turned out to be wrong and I arrived after they had closed doors and would not accept me.

So I ended up spending £160 on a one way Swiss ticket for a flight an hour later.

Moral of the story is be at the gate before the latest time and be prepared to photograph the gate board and some form of time bound evidence, if they have closed early.

I don’t blame BA for what happened and now I don’t listen to lounge hosts :-), just ensure I’m there before the latest time.

Edited to add: For anyone not aware – airport FIDS (flight information display systems) and other systems often work independently of airline systems, so never rely on them to give you an accurate picture – e.g. some airport systems are set to say ‘boarding’ at a standard pre-set time, when the aircraft may still be flying the inbound sector.

On my last trip from MAN to AUH, the airport actually made a PA stating pax for EY16 needed to go to the gate urgently, as the flight was closing. Actually, the agents were dealing with pre-boards and the airport announcement caused chaos and the airline staff were furious..

I just share this info for the potential benefit of other readers who assume joined-up thinking!

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